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Fish Farming News

Aquaculture's National Newspaper – Volume 18 – Issue 4 – 2011 – A Compass Publication – US$2.50

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New seafood numbers • 5New seafood numbers • 5Tilapia, pangasius show gains, Tilapia, pangasius show gains, catfish holds its owncatfish holds its own

Fish Health Notes • 6Fish Health Notes • 6High pressure makes High pressure makes oysters safer to eatoysters safer to eat

Aquaculture Aquaculture Perspectives • 11Perspectives • 11Romantic notion of eating Romantic notion of eating wild fish must endwild fish must end

Site Visit • 12Site Visit • 12Bell Aquaculture: Bell Aquaculture: From tiny perch a mighty From tiny perch a mighty business growsbusiness grows

From the Field • 18From the Field • 18Being dragged along Being dragged along into social mediainto social media

Fish Farming Fish Farming Business Profile • 24Business Profile • 24Riverdale MillsRiverdale Mills

12 • FISH FARMING NEWS • ISSUE 4 • 2011

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Bell Aquaculture: Bell Aquaculture: From tiny perch a mighty business grows

by Brian Robbins

REDKEY, IN – First, an admission.Believe me, where I come from in

Downeast Maine, we have our share of fish fries. Some folks live, breathe, and die (literally) for the “Friday Nite AYCE” specials at the local diner.

That would be “All You Can Eat,” of course – a weekly ritual where all sense of table decorum and dab-the-corner-of-your-mouth-with-your-napkin manner is tossed onto the floor along with said napkin.

Sweat-drenched waitstaff are kept on the run, charging from the kitchen to the dining area with platters of hot breaded fillets fresh from the fryolator. Diners nod “yes” when asked if they’d like more, their mouths packed full and a small heap still on the plate before them.

There are no limits. It’s probably the single most decadent

activity we have here in Maine.Of course, what we’re dealing with

here are usually haddock fillets.

I’m talking big rascals: one of them would make a fishburger that would set you up for the day.

Note: A brief aside from the author …The fishburger has always been my

preference for fried fillet consumption. I remember the ones I used to get at Tall Barney’s Restaurant down in Jonesport, ME years ago: the fillet not only far exceeded the circumference of the bun, but usually draped down over both sides of the dinner plate, as well. Add a slab of melted cheese and some tartar sauce and be ready to slobber up the front of your shirt. It was a delicious mess.

Back to our story …

I mention all this in an effort to explain my reaction recently to the sight of the typical fish-fry-size yellow perch fillet.

They were tiny. I mean, one-ounce-apiece tiny.

Forget my tales of wretched breaded excess from Downeast Maine – these are still, oh, 1/6 the size of your average farm-raised catfish fillet, or no more than 1/3 of what the typical piece of tilapia might weigh in at.

Little buggers. So my initial thought

when looking a plate of yellow perch fillets in the eye at Milton’s Family

Restaurant in Albany, Indiana was, “Good grief – are they big enough to taste?”

Well, they were. Big time.It just so happened that my tablemates

Bell Aquaculture photos

Yellow perch on ice ready for processing.

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were in the business of yellow perch themselves.

I was in town to take a look at Bell Aquaculture, the largest yellow perch operation in the US.

On my left was Nick Zaccaria, who manages Bell’s growout operation. (He had the fried perch sandwich). Across from him was Brad Benadum, facilities manager for the rapidly-expanding company. (Another sandwich.)

And across the table from me was my

guide for the day, Norman McCowan, president and CEO of Bell Aquaculture. The two of us each had a fried perch special sitting on the table in front of us.

“What do you think?” asked Norman.I paused between mouthfuls long

enough to answer, “Really, really good.”Norman grinned.

The owner of Milton’s called out to the waitress from the kitchen door, making sure that Norman heard her, “That last order cleaned us out of perch.” (That would’ve been us.)

“Tell that Norman he’d better get some more fish over here.”

Norman grinned even harder.

Bell’s beginnings When offered a fulltime postion with

Bell in mid-2008 (after working for them as a consultant) Norman McCowan says he didn’t hesitate.

“I told my wife, ‘Honey, it’s something I’ve got to do. Nowhere else are they

See BELL AQUACULTURE, next page

Norman McGowan.


Yellow perch quickly go from whole fish to market-ready fillets in Bell’s modern, efficient processing plant.


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raising this many fish in the middle of a cornfield!’”It’s true. The drive from Indianapolis to Bell

Aquaculture’s headquarters in Redkey passed by a lot of cornfields. A lot of cornfields – punctuated by some soybean fields here and there. The main reason I knew I’d reached the Bell facility wasn’t because of any large sign announcing it; it just wasn’t a cornfield.

After doing the prerequisite visitor sign-in, McCowan and I head to his office to talk a little Bell Aquaculture history.

After that we’d tour the Redkey facility (which is home to Bell’s corporate headquarters as well as its processing plant and fertilizer operation) and neighboring Albany site where the perch is actually grown.

In doing my research about Bell, I was surprised to find that the company has only been in existence since 2005.

The company’s roots go back another 10 years or so, however, when a fellow named Michael Miller found himself bitten by the aquaculture bug.

“Michael was actually working for Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta at the time,” says McCowan.

“He saw the word ‘aquaculture’ come across his desk and began to research it. He and his wife were with child at the time and were looking to make a move.

“Michael grew up in Chicago, but his roots were really here in Albany where he spent his summers with his grandmother. When he talked about ‘moving back home,’ he was talking about Indiana.”

If Michael Miller was the spark, it was his stepfather Brian Baldwin who actually lit Bell Aquaculture’s torch.

“Here we are” in 2011 means an operation spread between the two locations with a current workforce of 35 full-time employees.

“Vertically integrated” is a phrase that Bell uses frequently in describing itself: pretty much self-sufficient, relying only on outside suppliers for feed.

Other than that, they’ve built their own little world in five years’ time and can definitely call their fish their own, from broodstock and eggs, to harvesting and processing on the other end.

With their existing facility, Bell is looking at producing 1.8 million yellow perch in a one-year growout cycle.

The new addition that’s currently under construction (with plans to be up and going by October) will add another 3 million yellow perch a year to Bell’s forecast.

But wait – it doesn’t stop there: Bell’s next expansion will boost that number significantly, with the company hoping to have the capability to handle an additional 7.5 million perch by 2013.

“Once Brian Baldwin got ahold of Michael’s vision, things happened quickly,” says McCowan. “He does not do anything on a small scale.”

Continued from previous page

Bell Aquaculture

Says McCowan, “Brian Baldwin is the founder of 12 different companies; he sees everything with a big vision. Brian listened to Michael talk about aquaculture for several years and one day he basically said, ‘It’s time to quit talking – let’s do something.’

“The two of them began their research and discovered that they didn’t want to do anything in ponds; the way to go was indoors in a controlled environment.

“In 2006 they began moving some ground and putting up buildings on some land just outside of Albany … and here we are just five years later.”


Norman McGowan, at left, checks a sampling of fish for size consistency in one of Bell’s growout tanks. Nick Zaccaria, Bell growout manager, above, hand feeds a batch of yellow perch.


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That much is obvious. But Norman McCowan himself plays no small part in Bell’s rapid rise in the fish farming world.

The neat thing is he’s been waiting to do something like this his whole life.

A passion for fish“When I was a small child,” says McCowan, “I’d go out seining

minnows in the creeks to use for trout lining on the Wabash river for flatheads. My job was to take care of those minnows and early on I made a commitment to finding out why they were all dying.”

He shakes his head and laughs. “I didn’t understand at the time that the water we had in town was full of chlorine – every time I poured the water in, they’d die! But I was on a mission … and that’s when I began

Crist Wright tends fish in the huge Bell facility, were yellow perch are harvested and sold year-round.Bell Aquaculture photos


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my study of fish.” Though formally educated and trained as a

machinist in the automotive industry, McCowan never let go of his passion for fish.

“I bred and raised Japanese koi for about 20 years,” he says. “I had 58 aquariums in my garage, importing fish from everywhere and selling them right and left to pet stores in the area.”

By 2007, Bell Aquaculture was needing the services of someone who could teach others how to raise fish. Norman McCowan fit the bill perfectly.

“I was first hired as a consultant to train some of the associates they had hired on in fish husbandry and water chemistry. By mid-2008 they decided they wanted me to come on board fulltime.”

McCowan’s role as operations manager was short-lived (in a good way); his talent for rearing fish and leadership skills led to his being named Bell Aquaculture’s president and CEO in 2009.

According to McCowan, the opportunity with Bell is truly a dream come true.

“I’ve always said if we make it 10 years, 15 years, or the rest of our lives, it’s going to be some of the best times I’ve ever had.

“Out of all the jobs I could choose in the world, I wouldn’t want anything different than to raise fish. It doesn’t matter if I’m harvesting, processing, or sitting behind a desk doing a project schedule for our next expansion – I just love to do it.”

Proud parentsAs we make a tour of the two Bell Aquaculture

facilities, it’s apparent that each time the company takes one step forward, they’re actually looking ahead at least two steps.

The whole operation feels modular in its way; neat, professional, and fully-operational as is, but ready to knock down walls and put up new ones quickly and efficiently as they expand.

McCowan’s passion for what he does surfaces in the discussion of Bell’s extensive documentation of what

they do and just how they do it. “There’s no certification right now for an ‘organic’

fish, but that’s where we want the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) to come up with some guidelines,” he says. “And Bell wants to be at the forefront of that movement.

“We don’t use any antibiotics; we don’t use any hormones; and we’ve had our own HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) plan in place from the beginning.

“Everything we say we do, we can prove on paper: the transport records, the feed lot facts, the water quality, the production layout, yields, everything.

“We can tell you when a fish was born, who its parents were, which building it was born in, and which tank in that building.

“We have records of what the water quality was for Day 1 all the way through that fish’s life. And we can tell you the food that it ate and where it came from – everything.”

As mentioned, the process starts with Bell’s own broodstock.

“We realized early on that our fingerling supply was not going to come from ponds,” says McCowan. “There were too many chances for contamination issues.

“We worked with outside farms in the beginning, but we partnered with the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee to develop our own broodstock.

“We spawn our fish all naturally – we don’t use any chemicals or hormones - and we hatch those eggs into our own fry.”

As mentioned earlier, Bell went with an indoor controlled environment from the start.

Says McCowan, “There are some individuals in Ohio who are pond-raising perch, but it takes them two years to get fish to market size (150 grams/8"-12" long) – where Bell can do that in one year from an egg.”

The essentialsBell’s fish go through a 3-step process: an “early life

stage” hatchery; a “late stage” hatchery; and then from

Continued from previous pageBell Aquaculture


Mark Leavell tests samples from the Bell processing room for the presence of bacteria.


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there into the growout buildings.Water for the operation comes

from a pair of on-site 8" wells, with a recirculation factor of 99.7%.

Waste water is pumped to a man-made wetland that strips out the ammonia and the nitrogen solids.

“It’s a very efficient, natural way of handling the wastes,” says McCowan. “It works extremely well.”

Bell relies on a low head oxygenator system in their tanks.

“We found it to be a big improvement over the original aeration system we had,” says McCowan. “Much more efficient; better technology.”

The lessons Bell has learned along the way are applied as they grow and expand.

For instance, the original growout building is heated, kept at a constant 72°F.

In the new tank building that we toured (which will house nine 35' diameter tanks, each capable of holding 200,000 fish), the 55° groundwater itself will be heated to 72° rather than the building.

The end result? Approximately twice the fish production using half as much electricity. Not too shabby.

Another lesson learned along the way was the need for reliable genset power backup.

“When we first started,” says McCowan, “we had an incident where the generator was not hooked up properly.”

He shakes his head slowly, “We lost 400,000 fish in one night.”

When one thinks about the volume of fish Bell is planning on handling, any sort of power blip could be devastating. Currently they have five generators on site.

“Just last week a storm came through that shut down power in the area for over four hours,” says McCowan. “And it takes sixteen minutes to deplete the oxygen in a tank that’s fully stocked.”

That made me cringe.All feeding is done by hand, five

times a day. “With yellow perch, you got to keep

them fed or they’ll eat the guy next to See BELL AQUACULTURE, page 27

Young perch swim in the foreground as Bell’s onsite laboratory facility can be seen behind them.Bell Aquaculture photo


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‘em,” says McCowan. “It’s simply a matter of paying attention - when they’re not hungry, we back the feed off.”

The operation’s target feed conversion ratio ranges between 1:1 and 1.2:1 – the latter being very achievable, according to McCowan.

Currently, Bell gets its feed from Silver Cup Fish Feed out of Utah. Premier Feeds in Ohio is also in the process of developing some feed formulas for perch growing, which would be convenient for Bell, says McCowan.

“They’re very close – only about an hour and a half away – and shipping is obviously a major factor in feed costs.”

It’s no surprise to find out that Bell is doing its homework when it comes to feed.

“Like most perch growers, we’re using a trout/salmon diet,” says McCowan.

“We’re partnering with the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Purdue University to develop a feed that matches the nutritional profile of the yellow perch.”

The massive tanks being built on-site for the current expansion are round, as mentioned.

“We’ll never build anything but circular tanks from now on,” says McCowan.

“Fish tend to bunch up in the corners of a rectangular tank, causing all sorts of problems. With the round tanks, they’re constantly moving – it’s a much better environment for them.”

It’s an impressive, almost overwhelming schedule to think about. The growout tanks we’re watching being built will be stocked with fish by October if all goes well. In March, Bell will knock out a wall of that same building and put in another 15 tanks.

And after that? “The next jump would be a new

4-acre building,” says McCowan. “The pad is already there – we’ll just scrape off the topsoil and start putting it up.”

As I said, the Bell approach clearly seems to be, “take one step, and look two steps ahead – at least”.

The process of processing“We’re producing fish all year round,”

says McCowan. “We’re set up to deliver fish every day

of every week if need be. It’s a very consistent flow and that’s

what the restaurants and the food distributors like: consistent, quality product at a consistent price.”

Bell puts their fish through a two-step grading process – a rough grade and a finish grade – before sending them to a processing plant.

“Another thing our customers like are very consistent fillets,” says McCowan. “We do the 2-step grading process to make sure they get that.”

The perch are harvested into an ice slurry mixture and transported from the

Albany facility to neighboring Redkey. McCowan explains the need for the

separate locations.“Early on, we built the Albany

farm on some land that was zoned for aquaculture. Cutting fish is an industrial process, however, so we had to purchase some land that was zoned industrial. It’s about a 5-mile drive between the two.”

Bell’s current processing line features Pisces equipment. Small- and medium-grade perch are machine cut, while the jumbos are cut by hand.

“Our jumbos are used for our ‘Bell

Farms’ brand fillets,” says McCowan. “That’s more of a ‘white-tablecloth center-of-the-plate’ type of fish, whereas the traditional market for yellow perch is the one-ounce ‘fish fry’ fillet.”

Bell’s IQF product line includes fillets (both breaded and unbreaded) and “Cajun Nuggets.”

“We do sell fresh jumbo fillets as well, cut on the spot and delivered directly to

Continued from page 17Bell Aquaculture

See BELL AQUACULTURE, page 29

Bell Aquaculture photo

Unbreaded IQF fillets run through Bell’s rapid freezing system.


FROM THE BELL AQUACULTURE RECIPE BOOK“Perch are born to be fried.” According to Norman McCowan, that’s a saying in the Great Lakes. And there’s no doubt about it, the vast majority of

the yellow perch consumed in the US goes from the processor to the fryolator to the plate. But there are many other ways to prepare the little white fillets, as well.We asked Norman about his fave perch recipes.“Oh boy,” he said with a grin. “My favorite way to have yellow perch is a perch cocktail – a simple-to-make variation on

shrimp cocktail. That and a blueberry perch cake. It’s absolutely wonderful.”We figure the man knows his perch. And how to eat them.The recipes below and many more can be found at http://www.bellaquaculture.com/our-products/bell-perch/recipes/

Brian Robbins

Bell Perch Cocktail

Ingredients:

1 cup of cooked Bell Yellow Perch nuggets

2/3 cup chili sauce

1 Tbsp horseradish

3/4 cup chopped celery

Mix and chill, present in 3/4 cup serving size.

Blueberry Perch Breakfast BakeIngredients:2 cups all-purpose flour1/ 4 cup firmly packed brown sugar1 tsp baking powder2 large eggs1/2 tsp baking soda1 lb. Bell Yellow Perch, browned1/2 cup butter or margarine1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream or yogurt3/4 cup granulated sugar1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix flour, baking powder and soda. Set aside.Beat butter until fluffy. Add sugar, brown sugar and eggs, one at a time, beating each addition for 1 minute.Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Fold in browned Bell Yellow Perch and sour cream.

Pour into lightly greased 9x13x2 inch pan. Sprinkle nuts on top. (At this stage, may be covered and refrigerated overnight and baked in the morning.)Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool slightly.

To serve, cut into squares, drizzle with blueberry sauce and top with a dollop of sour cream if desired.Makes 12 servings.

Blueberry SauceIngredients:1/2 cup granulated sugar2 Tbsp cornstarch1/2 cup water2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries1/2 tsp lemon juiceAdditional sour cream for accompaniment (optional)

Combine sugar and cornstarch, add water and blueberries. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

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the customer,” said McCowan. Plus, Bell also offers custom cutting for other fish growers.

“It’s always been ‘the chicken or the egg’ for fish farmers,” says McCowan. “You can’t have a fish farm because there’s no processor; you can’t get the processor set up because there’s no fish farm.

“Now we have a processing facility that’s willing to work with other growers. They have standards to meet before we’d cut their fish of course; but once they do – hey, let’s start cutting some fish! It’s time to create some jobs.”

Back to the landA by-product of Bell’s processing

operation is their new line of “Fish Rich” fertilizer.

Says McCowan, “We’ve taken all of our scraps – all of our ‘remains of the day’ – and developed a line of liquid fertilizers.”

Bell has built a new building at the Redkey site specifically for fertilizer processing, including a full laboratory.

Currently, they offer both an organic “Fish Rich” blend for crop usage and “Fish Rich Plus” fertilizer, synthetic in

Continued from page 27Bell Aquaculture

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“One of our strong points is going to be that we can do a custom formula,” says McCowan.

“If you call us up and want a special NKP (nitrogen:potassium:phosphorous ratio), we will start with a natural-based formula and will develop a fertilizer to your NKP specs. We’ve had an individual working with us for two years now at Bell to develop those formulas.”

McCowan estimated that 2012’s yellow perch production will yield around 17,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer per month.

“We see potential markets with everyone from home gardeners to organic crop growers and vineyards. It has great appeal for hay growers because of its nutritional value.”

Room to grow … and grow …As we near the end of our tour, I ask

Norman McCowan who his competition is. He doesn’t hesitate with his answer.

“We don’t see anyone as our competition – we actually see ourselves as opening up opportunities for other folks to get involved.

“The demand far exceeds the supply at this point,” he continued.

“Purdue did a study back in the 80s that the consumption of yellow perch in this country peaked at 38 million pounds, okay?

“It looks like – with everything combined – that there might be 11 millions pounds of yellow perch produced this year.

“That’s a large gap between supply and demand.

“So, no – we really don’t have any competition; we see an opportunity for a lot more growers.

“We see ourselves as creating a model here: offering a great quality product to the market and creating jobs for people.”

It goes without saying that Bell Aquaculture could not operate as it has (and looks to do) without the financial support of investor Brian Baldwin. And McCowan is quick to acknowledge that fact.

“Brian’s an entrepreneur; he understood from the beginning that it was going to take time to get a return from all this.

“He’s 80 years old with no plans to retire. But as he’s said himself, ‘If I don’t see it in my lifetime, my kids will.’”

I thank Norman for his time – with so much going on, a good chunk of his morning is worth a lot – and mention

how everyone we met along the way seemed to like what they were doing.

That makes him smile, big time.“Everyone here takes pride in what

they do,” he tells me. “We had some people visit from a

perch producer in Ireland, and when they got ready to leave, one of the guys said to me, ‘Norman, you don’t have employees – you have a family.’”

With that, I’m ready to shake Norman McCowan’s hand and let him get back to business. He has another idea, however.

“If you have time, why don’t you join us for lunch at the diner in town?” He pauses. “I hear they have a pretty good fish fry.”

“Oh man,” I say. “That sounds great – but I don’t want you to do one thing different on my account. I’ve already pooched half your day.”

“Aw, we’ve got to eat lunch,” says McCowan. “That’s our time to solve the world’s problems.”

“Well, in that case …” I say, “I’d better turn off the recorder for this one.”

And that’s where our story began.

Brian Robbins is a contributing writer to Fish Farming News. A former offshore commercial lobster fisherman, he lives in coastal Maine and can be reached at <[email protected]>.

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